Listen Before I Go
by ListenCloselyWhileILie
Summary: Snapshots of Hadley (fem!Harry) and Dracos friendship. possible relationship. What will Draco do when he finds Hadley alone so close to the edge, wind whipping her hair and a precipice beneath her feet.
1. Third year, the Beginning

**_'Take me to the rooftop_**

**_I wanna see the world when I stop breathing, turning blue_**

**_Tell me love is endless, don't be so pretentious_**

**_Leave me like you do'_**

**_Billie Eilish- Listen Before I Go _**

**'Looking back, Draco could say it had all started in Third year, that first time he truly looked at Potter.'**

Draco Malfoy was fuming, Dementors on the Bloody school grounds. Stalking the bleeding train, all because of pathetic Potter. Maybe he would get lucky and one of the damned things would kiss the witch.

The welcome feast came and the little firsties were sorted, not nearly enough came to the house of snakes, atleast as far as the blonde Slytherin was concerned. It was halfway through dinner when he noticed the absence on the queen of the little Golden trio, tho the other two members hardly seemed concerned. Draco could hear the weasel griping from all the way across the great hall.

"Those dementors came right up into our cabin! Can you believe it! They were after Hadley, nearly gave her the **KISS**! Then I'm sure it would have moved on to me and 'Moine! Dont get me started on Hadley, she hardly even stopped to care once we got her to the infirmary! All she would say is she heard her mum screaming for her when the dementors came near. Like that's horrid and all, but can you imagine the fuss MY mum would make screaming if a dementor had eaten me!" Ron complained to his enthusiastic audience, Hermoine gravely nodding along to his words.

Draco couldnt help the sneer that twisted his face, and the slightest swell of pity that turned his stomach. Some friends the so called savior had, no one deserved to hear their mothers last moments on replay for them. Merlin knows draco loved his own mother enough the thought of witnessing her death sent ice down his veins. And with this disturbing trend his thoughts had taken, he pushed himself up from the table and went off to go find Potter.

It took him nearly and hour to find the witch. After seeking her out in the infirmary, he found she had escaped Pomfrey's well meaning clutches as soon as her "friends" went down for dinner. In fact after searching the halls for some time he nearly gave up. When he heard a passing seventh year mention the heard someone walk up to the astronomy tower, "probably to meet up with a lover" he had said, but Draco just had a feeling it was Potter, not some lovesick hufflepuff.

Sure enough after making his way the tower, he saw her. Sitting over at the edge by the railing, her feet dangling into the still warm September air. His mouth spoke before his brain could stop it,

"Waiting for your dementor boyfriend to come up here for a kiss, Potty?" The words dripping off his tongue with cruelty that was unnecessary.

Hadley stiffened slightly, tho she didn't turn to meet his eyes, he simply heard her say "Shove off Malfoy, better a dementor than you." There was no heat to her rebuff, just tiredness.

"Actually, I dont think I'll go anywhere. I didn't walk around the castle looking for you for over an hour, and trudge up to this Merlin forsaken tower just to leave you here on your lonesome." And with that, he crossed the distance to her and plopped down on the cool flagstone next to her. At the moment he couldn't tell you why he did this, there was after all, no love lost between the two of them. But, then she turned her head to meet his eyes, and he noted several things at once.

Hadley was rather thin, thinner than he remembered, as if she hadn't eaten in some time, and there was a haunted look in her emerald eyes that bespoke of the trauma she had just gone through. Shadows beneath her eyes made him think she either had anemia or insomnia, all of this surprised the Malfoy heir, surely the Potter Princess should have been better taken care of over the summer, if what his Godfather had to say was true.

His observation was cut short by a nearly whispered "You looked for me? Why?" A puzzled look and a slight frown crossed her face.

"Well, I'm not completely heartless. Your weasel is down in the great hall proclaiming your incident with the dementor loud and clear, and his subsequent near death experience, of course. Some friends you have potter, if only you had made alliances with the right sort of wizard." Draco snarked, referring to his attempt to gain her friendship back in first year.

Hadley seemed to collapse in on herself a little at his words. "If I could go back I would have taken your hand that first year." Her words were so quiet they were nearly carried away on the wind. Her next phrase was a bit louder, tho no less surprising. "I'm not shocked, Ron's only ever been interested in my fame, I had thought better of him back in first year. But it's not as tho I have much knowledge when comes to making friends. And you were more than a little abrasive you know. Maybe if you had just come in to say 'Hullo', and not been looking for a girl with a scar we could have been friends." She had a slightly wistful look on her face as she said the last bit.

Draco felt his eyebrows raise, he had been a bit of a git, he supposed. After a moment of consideration he stuck his hand out, and with a self assured smile he said "Hullo, I'm Draco Malfoy, pleasure to make you acquaintance!"

Hadley blinked at his outstretched hand for a moment, and then with a rueful smile, she shook his hand, "Hullo, I'm Hadley Potter, the pleasure is all mine"

**'Yes, that had been the beginning of something that changed his life'**


	2. Third Year: Please don't tell my Father

**([A/N] this is an Omake. A little bit of fluffy filler I couldnt get out of my head for this story) **

A school owl landed in front of Draco during dinner. Interrupting his retelling of the **HORRIFIC** incident. One might think he could have lost the arm, his very life even, the way he was explaining it. However, he paused his story telling to awkwardly untie the note with a single hand from the owls leg.

_'Tower of stars after dinner, I'll sign your arm! Seeing as we are friends now and all. -H' _

Draco couldn't help the smallest of smiles that pulled at his cheeks.

The flagstones were rough underneath her bare feet as Hadley walked to sit at the edge of the Astronomy tower that evening. She had left her riotous black curls loose, hanging midway down her back. The wind was picking at them, and making her hair altogether more messy than before.

"You look like my crazy aunt when you let your hair down, all messy like that." Draco said a laugh in his voice, as he moved to plop down beside her.

"You have a crazy aunt? What kind of crazy? Because personally I think my aunt is a bit nutty" Hadley looked over at him with a grin.

"Oh, just the torture people while cackling madly about how you wish He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would have devil spawn with you. Kind of nutty. **HOWEVER** she had the most lovely curly hair last we saw her, so that's something. I'm sure Azkaban has rotted half of it off her head by now however. Which is quite a tragedy." Draco deadpanned.

"That's just... awful! My Aunt just likes her house to be far cleaner than necessary, and she _SCREECHES_. Wait, **DID** your aunt have any babies with, well, **HIM**?" Hadley had her eyebrows raised in semi-disbelief by the last bit.

"Oh merlin no! What a disaster that would be. **ME**, cousins with **HIS** progeny. Gross. He didn't even have a nose! And my Aunt is barmy, can you imagine, a tiny noseless toddler running around cackling or something! Gracious." He laughed

"Ha! Better a crazed, tiny, nose deficient cousin, than a baby whale for a cousin! My cousin Dudley, his mum calls him Sweet duddikins if you can believe it, is massive. He eats all the food in the house!" Hadley laughed with him, until she noticed a serious look come onto his face.

"That why your so small then? Not enough food left for you when your fat flobberworm of a cousin gets done?" Here Draco tried for nonchalance, but there was burning curiosity in his eyes.

"Oh, well, it's always been a bit taxing to pay for two children... that's all. Nothing to be done, my.. family does the best they can, I suppose. Anyways! I owled you up here to sign that arm! So let me see it! Got to have something to show for you fighting off a hippogryph after all." She said with forced cheer.

Draco took a moment to look into her eyes, searching for some unnamed thing, to determine if he should press the family issue. He was after all, a very curious boy, and the homelife of the "Savior" was such a mystery. But, in the end, he seemed to find reason enough to hold off on asking, at least for now. And so he put on a wild grin, and gave a hearty sigh.

"You know Potter, its **ENTIRELY** possible I could **LOOSE** this arm!" Here he shook his cast bearing arm around for emphasis. "I mean look at this, what you see, so woefully damaged here before you is Prime Malfoy flesh. One doesn't simply find so beautiful a specimen as me, and to have it so savagely brutalized is a crime. In fact I'm debating if my Father should hear of it!" He dramatically flopped backwards onto the stones at the end of his proclamation. (It should be noted he was careful not to bang his head on the stones. I wouldn't befit a Malfoy to damage his brain cells in such a way after all)

Hadley was giggling at his display, causing a self satisfied smirk to grace his face before he started laughing along with her.

"Oh you tosser! Don't get the poor winged creature killed over your dramatics!" Here draco gave a very affronted gasp of indignation. "You'll have every girl in Slytherin fawning over you until this heals up. You should thank the beast honestly, you might even be able to convince a few girls to give you get well kisses! Now get over here so I can write something on your cast. There, that will do! Well, it will be curfew soon so we better get going. Try and avoid aggravating the wild life in the future eh?" Hadley grinned as she finished her writing on his arm. Before he could even twist his arm and read it, she was pushing herself up on the stone, grabbing her discarded shoes and running away. She paused to turn around and wink at him just before she descended the steps and was out of sight.

Draco blinked at her rapid departure, then with a sick feeling in his gut he twisted his arm around to read what she wrote.

**_"I kissed a Hippogryph and all I got was this lousy broken arm"_** was boldly scrawled across the length of his forearm.

Draco's shout of "**POTTER**!" Followed a laughing Hadley down the stairs.


	3. Third Year: A Sirius Problem

Students were whispering feverishly as they set up camp in the great hall.

"That horrible Sirius Black has been IN the school!"

"Nearly tore down the fat ladies painting trying to get at Potter!"

"Potter being here puts the rest of us in danger! She should be sent home"

Draco was disgusted, both at the other students and himself. For mere months ago he would have been right along with the other students eager for any opportunity to knock the "chosen one" down a peg or three.

Now tho? After months of meeting up in the astronomy tower, and that one time she showed him how to sneak into the kitchens because she wanted to sip on hot chocolate. He couldnt imagine railing against her, it's not like she out an ad out in the Daily Prophet asking for the bastard to come hunt her down. She didnt even know who he was until Mcgonagall told her, her own Godfather was after her. How utterly wretched.

Draco scanned the huddled sleeping bags for a familiar mass of dark curls, only to frown when he saw them, all alone. The other students had kept a wide berth around the Potter heir, as if Sirius Black would materialize at any moment, under the careful watch of all the teachers and exact his revenge. With a scoff at the ridiculousness of that thought draco maneuvered his way over to Hadley.

When Hadley her the soft pat of footsteps nearing her huddled location away from everyone in the corner, she looked up, eyes bright with fear. Only to relax when she saw the smirking blonde towering above her.

"Draco! Its dangerous to be over here!" She whispered harshly. "Go sleep with the other snakes, everyone is looking!"

"Pft. As if I, heir malfoy, care at all what the peasantry think." He said loudly enough for the nearby students to hear, he then sneered at them. "Besides, Sirius Black is my mothers cousin, I hardly think he would attack me. Old black family magic and all."

With that said, he plopped his sleeping sack down next to Hadley and attempted to get comfortable.

"This is utter nonsense. They could have atleast transfigured up some beds for merlins sake. Leaving us poor defenceless children to rot on this cold unforgiving stone. If I catch my death of cold, my father with certainly hear of it!" He grumbled into his pillow.

"Atleast theres room to stretch your legs out here, tho I suppose since your Father is on the board of governors he probably HAS heard of this." Hadley mused, partially to herself, the Draco was quite near enough to hear her.

'Another piece to the puzzle of Hadley's childhood' thought Draco, 'not even enough room on her bed to stretch out her legs! She's tiny, for goodness sake.'

"Hmm, you make a good point my father MUST know. Perhaps he will show up with a nice peacock down feather bed, and some of my mums pumpkin chunk cookies! That would certainly make this miserable evening more bearable. I mean we have to share sleeping space with," here he paused to shiver with abject disgust and horror. "HUFFLEPUFFS. Repulsive. They are over there bundled up telling fluffy stories about unicorns frolicking no doubt." Draco rambled on, hoping to rouse a smile or perhaps even a laugh from his companion.

His utter displeasure about sharing space with the 'puffs, won him just that, a small smile and giggle. They lay in companionable silence for a few moments until Hadley spoke up.

"Hey draco?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think, maybe, you could ask your mum to send some of those cookies by owl? They sound good, and I've never had pumpkin chunk before."

"Never... **NEVER**!? Why I have half a mind to go get some parchment this very moment! So help me, my mother will hear of this!"

And just like that Hadley knew she would make it through the night, atleast as long as she had Draco there to snark her fears away.


	4. Third Year: A sirius Resolution

"...And that's how we set my Godfather free, riding into the night on the back of Buckbeak!" Concluded Hadley to an utterly shocked Draco, and a very excited audience of the kitchen house elves.

Draco took a large sip of his hot chocolate and then began speaking.

"Ok. Let me get this straight. You went back in time because you stole Hermoine's time turner." "**BORROWED**!" Interupted Hadley. "Fine fine, **_Borrowed_**, her time Turner. Faced off against a whole horde of **DEMENTORS.** **BY.** **YOURSELF**. Which is _terrifying_ and also **WAY** cool, I'm jealous 'Ley you need to teach me that charm! Then found out Weasle has been sleeping with a disgusting rat-man for years, caught him. Lost him. Nearly got eaten by our defense teacher turned werewolf. Then luckily your Godfather is also a big **DOG** and saved you. And then you sent him away on that malfoy offending murder bird?" Draco ranted, a slightly crazed look in his eye.

"Well I mean, yes, that's the gist of it. Was a bit of a crazy night I must say, even for me!" Hadley replied with a sheepish smile.

"Sweet merlin I can't leave you alone for a second can I? I'm going to have to get some sort of communication charmed books, or rocks, or **SOMETHINGS**. So you can let me know before you go off on your next mad adventure! And before you get all fussy about being a strong confidant woman who doesn't need my help, I simply refuse to allow you to have all the fun." Draco grinned at her.

"You're ridiculous Draco, now stop your ranting and pass me a cookie won't you?" She said pointedly looking at the artfully stacked box of Mrs. Malfoys special pumpkin chunk cookies.

With a smirk Draco passed her a cookie. Purposely brushing against her hand for a moment longer than necessary to transfer the cookie. He hoped she would understand what he was trying to convey. Since she blushed a fetching shade of pink as she pulled her hand away, he was pretty sure his mission was successful.

They passed the next half hour eating cookies and other treats brought over by the excitable house elves. The elves had even taken to setting up a little picnic blanket over by the kitchen fire every time they came down lately. As they reached the end of the box of cookies Draco noticed a pensive look come over Hadley's face.

"What is it 'Ley?" Draco reached out for her hand. Hadley noticed his reach, and accepted his hand hold with a slight blush.

"Its just something Sirius said, well a couple of things he said really."

"And? What did he say?"

"Well, for one I'm wondering if I have a right to be upset about his actions the night my parents died. Instead of making sure I was cared for, or bringing me somewhere safe he, left me. He went off all angry and vengeful to kill Peter. And he left me. Left me without a Godfather. Left me to the Dursleys, and I know I have only told you the barest minimum about them. Suffice to say they are not kind, amd certainly never kind to me. If he hadn't left, if he just waited, my whole life could have been so different. Knowing someone loved me, that would have..." she trailed off with a heart breaking sigh. Draco squeezed her hand, true he hadnt been told much directly about her home life. But He wasnt in Slytherin for nothing, he had been given enough bits and pieces to know he hated the Dursley family.

"I think you're justified. A Godfather is supposed to act as a parent if anything happens to the birth parents. Hadley, he never should have left you. I'm sorry."

After a moment of silence, and a _slurp_ of hot chocolate to fortify her, she continued.

"Thanks Draco, honestly as much as that upsets me, the rest of what he said terrifies me. He... he wants to adopt me. Be a family, he said he was going to find a way to get his freedom, veritaserum, or some such. Then, before the end of summer we will be a family. And I'm terribly scared of how very happy this makes me. What if, he realizes I'm too much trouble. That im not worth it."

Draco scooted closer and pulled her close against him.

"Oh Hadley, those dursley bastards did a number didn't they? You are oh so very worth it. Think of how wonderful it will be! I can come visit you! He IS a cousin after all so I'm certain I would be granted permission to come visit you. I could say I want to learn more about the Black Family Values, or Ancient and Noble Lordships. Something like that anyways. And I'll come see you!" Draco enthused and saw the joy sparking in her eyes.

"That would be just so wonderful wouldn't it! I've always dreamed someone would adopt me. That it just might happen is almost unreal to me, the fact that he is your cousin so you can come over and visit makes it even better!" She said with a soft happy smile.

"It'll work out Hadley, have some faith. I have little doubt I'll be hearing from you before the first month of summer break is over. You'll be telling me all about how he's spoiling you, with the black family fortune. About your posh new room overlooking a picture perfect veranda. And of course that I'm invited over the very next weekend. If you delay my visit any further than that I'll be horribly cross with you."

"Yeah, you're right, I can't wait."


	5. Fourth Year: Summer Interlude(Mini Chap)

Fourth Year. Summer Interlude (Mini Update)

Draco waited 3 weeks for Hadley's letter of invitation to her summer get away to the London Black Estate. He even mentioned to his mother he would be invited, and she gave him a **VERY** thorough warning of all the traps, hexes, curses, smouldering ash demons and such that could be found in the Black Estate of London. At this point Draco wasnt quite sure if he was excited or horrified. However his invitation had yet to come, the suspense was killing him. This all left Draco rather miffed. After all he didn't sit through a three hour lecture on Proper Safety Precautions for Survival While Visiting Black Family Properties, for no reason.

Draco scrawled a letter to Hadley trying to imprint his sneer upon the very letters.

"Nice to know a few weeks with your Godfather and you forget all about me!! See if I ever bring you pumpkin chunk cookies again.

**_Irritably_**

-DLM"

Three days later a rather ruffled looking Hedwig tapped on his window.

"He won't have me. There'll be no summer escapades for us. **Ridiculous Robes** convinced **Black** that I would be better off with my... family. They truly aren't pleased. I fear for Hedwig's safety, could you keep her for me this summer?

I'm sorry

-H"

Draco cursed his stupid temper. He hadn't even considered her Godfather not taking her in. _'Oh merlin, Hadley must be heartbroken she was so happy to get this chance at a family.' _

Then Draco felt worry gnaw at his gut. _'If her relatives were a danger to the OWL how much worse off must Hadley be?'_ Draco paced back and forth trying to come up with some way to help her, only to throw a vase at the wall when he could think of nothing.


End file.
